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Windows Phone 7

Windows Phone is a family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft, and is the successor to its Windows Mobile platform, although incompatible with it. Unlike its predecessor, it is primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market. It was launched in the second half of 2010, with a release in Asia following in early 2011. With Windows Phone, Microsoft created a new user interface, featuring its design language called Metro. Additionally, the software is integrated with third party services and Microsoft services, and sets minimum requirements for the hardware on which it runs.

Work on a major Windows Mobile update may have begun as early as 2004 under the codename "Photon", but work moved slowly and the project was ultimately cancelled. In 2008, Microsoft reorganized the Windows Mobile group and started work on a new mobile operating system. The product was to be released in 2009 as Windows Phone, but several delays prompted Microsoft to develop...

Amazon has hired Charlie Kindel, the former general manager for Microsoft's Windows Phone to work on "something secret." Kindel, whose name prompted suspicions that he may have been trying to pull off an April Fool's hoax, wrote on his LinkedIn profi...

Nokia has cut the price of its flagship Lumia 900 phone in half just three months after it hit the U.S. market. The Windows-based smartphone now costs $49.99 with a two-year contract from AT&T. The new price took effect Sunday, The Wall Street Journa...

Microsoft's Windows Phone is shaping up to be the tech equivalent of a Wes Anderson movie: Well-reviewed by critics, but mostly ignored by the general public. That, at least, is the takeaway from comScore MobiLens's report for the three months betwee...

Last week was the most eventful for Microsoft in recent memory. After unveiling the Surface tablet, the company revealed a couple of days later its biggest-ever upgrade to Windows Phone -- the Windows Phone 8. However, the latter news left a sour tas...

An analyst says Microsoft may be building its own phone. Microsoft says "not so much." How did we get here? Let's just say: Microsoft started it. This week, Microsoft did the unthinkable: It struck out on its own and introduced Microsoft-designed and...

Long-time Microsoft watchers like me are marveling at the company’s transformation. Slowly but surely, the siloed behemoth that once couldn’t get its desktop and mobile operating system teams to talk to each other is now starting to glide forward as ...

Microsoft's product evangelist has stepped in after a blogger went public this weekend claiming the company didn't honor his victory in an in-store "Smoked By Windows Phone" challenge. Ben Rudolph a.k.a. "Ben the PC Guy" tweeted an olive branch to bl...

It looks like Angry Birds Space will be making it to Windows Phone 7 after all. The game officially debuted Thursday on Android and iOS, however, Rovio indicated that it didn't have plans to ever bring the game to Windows Phone 7. "If you look at act...

BARCELONA -- Microsoft Windows Phone has, by some estimates, just 2% of the smartphone market. However, Microsoft execs talking to Mashable at Mobile World Congress were smiling and partying and said that they’re exactly where they need to be. Perhap...

BARCELONA -- Nokia wove a convincing story this morning of success for the still-young and well-behind-the-competition Windows Phone platform, but it was one brief product mention that could be the best augur of future success: The arrival of Skype f...

A new campaign from Microsoft repeats what many reviewers have noted about Windows Phone: It's comparable or better than its iPhone and Android-based competitors. The effort, which rolled out on Thursday morning via Windows Phone's Facebook Page, sho...

The reinvention of Nokia is going slowly, if the last financial quarter is any indication. The Finnish cellphone giant lost nearly a billion euros in Q4 2011, or $1.3 billion. On top of that, Nokia sold 31% fewer smartphones than over the same period...

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LAS VEGAS -- There was a moment, just one moment where Microsoft’s last CES keynote transcended the mundane and skirted the edge of fantastic. If you weren't watching or have read the reports coming out of CEO Steve Ballmer’s hour-and-a-half-long goo...

Microsoft is rolling out a new Windows Phone update to clean up some of its mobile operating system glitches. Microsoft said in a blog post that it is releasing its latest Windows Phone update – 8107 – starting this week. Included in the update are f...

The apps market continued to grow in 2011, with millions of apps now available across the major mobile platforms. With so many apps out there, it's easy to miss out on a must-have mobile tool. We have rounded up our favorite apps of 2011 for iOS, And...

Nokia is partnering with T-Mobile to bring its entry-level Lumia 710 Windows Phone to the United States this January. The Lumia 710, which shouldn't be confused with the more eye-turning, high-end Lumia 800, will be available from T-Mobile on Jan. 11...

In the world of smartphones, Windows Phone 7 is barely a blip. It has, by some estimates less than 6% market share. Android now owns half the market and iOS about 26%. This isn’t right. You see, the Windows Phone 7 is a good -- possibly great -- mobi...

Thirteen months after the initial launch of Windows Phone 7, a couple of minor and one major update later, the Windows Phone Marketplace has finally reached an important milestone. 40,000 apps are now available in the Marketplace and, while we all kn...

A number of new Windows Phone devices -- including the excellent Focus Flash -- launched this week and Microsoft decided to celebrate with a big media blitz in New York City. Microsoft built a six-story Windows Phone with truly "live" Live tiles in t...

Samsung's new Focus Flash is a sleek, well-designed Windows Phone with a price that might just be enough to bring new smartphone users into the Microsoft fold. What makes the Samsung Focus Flash remarkable aren't its specs -- though it is a well spec...

Nokia will show off the first Nokia Windows Phones to the world at the Nokia World event on Oct. 26-27 in London. The announcement comes from the president of Microsoft's Windows Phone division Andy Lees. This is in line with the previous announcemen...

Microsoft has begun rolling out Windows Phone 7.5 "Mango," the newest version of its smartphone software. Mango, first introduced in May, comes with a slew of new features designed to improve the user experience. "Our top goal was product satisfactio...

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer expressed disappointment at Windows Phone 7 sales during Microsoft's financial analyst meeting Wednesday. “We haven’t sold quite as many as I would have liked in the first year. ... I’m not saying I love where we are, but ...

Android has been the top smartphone platform in the U.S. and the world for more than half a year. Now, it's experiencing similarly fast growth in Europe. According to comScore's latest report, which measures smartphone adoption rates in EU5 -- France...

Google and Apple continue to eat up more of the smartphone market, while RIM and Microsoft continue to lose ground. According to new data from comScore, 82.2 million people in the U.S. owned a smartphone as of July 2011, a full 10% increase from Apri...

The body of WebOS is still warm, one day after Hewlett-Packard announced it would cease developing the platform -- indeed, HP may yet find a buyer who can bring it back to life. But Microsoft is wasting no time in luring the mourners away with free g...

Group texting app GroupMe is out with version 3.0 of the service. It adds a slew of updates, including direct messaging, a new beta feature called "Questions" and global access to the app. GroupMe launched last fall as a group messaging solution — a ...

The newest version of the Windows Phone OS, codename "Mango," has reached the release to manufacturing stage (RTM). By this fall, Microsoft's mobile OS will available on handsets worldwide. The RTM stage marks the end of Microsoft's development of th...

Nokia reported abysmal Q2 2011 results on Thursday: a $693 million operating loss and a 20% year-over-year decline in net sales. Such a poor quarter is likely the result of continued weakness in smartphone sales as Nokia prepares to switch to Microso...

Nokia's first Windows Phone 7 handset, codenamed Sea Ray, was captured in a in a minute-and-a-half long video running Microsoft's mobile operating system. Nokia still has a long, hard road ahead before it actually releases a WP7 device, but it's maki...

Owners of Windows Phone 7 devices, rejoice: The time to crush those dastardly pigs with angry, feathered projectiles is nigh! Yes, Angry Birds is now available for WP7, and it goes for $2.99. The megapopular game has been spreading to a variety of pl...

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